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Donny Yen recently played Ip Man in a fictional account based on the Wing Chun master's life in China. The film was interesting although I did not care for the archetypal portrayal of the Japanese as the ubiquitous "evil bad guys" but then again I'm biased.

So I was wondering, after having read a bit of the biography of O Sensei whether there has been a fictional or even documentary on his life. I have seen a couple DVDs under the Video Reviews section here but they do look more documentary than fictional.

Is the lack of Aikido presence in films in general due to its overall philosophy or non-confrontation? Aside from Steven Seagal, there are not too many Aikido practitioners in the film world.

I've seen the movie Aiki which is more on daitoryu. Its a nice film nevertheless.

I heard that there is either a new movie about aikido or a tv series revolving around aikido. Both are probably contemporary though.

As for Ip man, well he's famous because he's bruce lee's teacher. He wasn't the founder of Wing chun. There's an old chinese movie with Michele Yeah acting as the nun who founded the style but it wasn't that great.

I doubt Osensei's movie will be much sought after since there is really no glitz to be had by hollywood.

Draw strength from stillness. Learn to act without acting. And never underestimate a samurai cat.

There's a Japanese film made in 1975 entitled "Gekitotsu! Aikidô".. It stars Jirô Chiba and Sonny Chiba. It's is a fictionalisation of Morihei Ueshiba's early years in Hokkaido.. Jirô Chiba plays Morihei Ueshiba..
IMDB entry is here

An action movie that illustrates the struggle of Morihei Ueshiba who was born in a farming family in Wakayama (an area in Japan) on his way of pursuing the heart of martial arts until he finally created his own well-polished martial arts Aikido in which he included the strengths of other martial arts such as old-style Judo, Kendo, and spearmanship. It was the first time that Shinichi Chiba's younger
brother Jiro tooks the leading role in a movie.